Parents killed in Wisconsin in plot to kidnap their daughter, sheriff says

By Jeff Baenen and Gretchen Ehlke

Published
12:52 pm PST, Friday, January 11, 2019

Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald holds a photo of kidnapping suspect Jake Patterson during a news conference in the town of Barron.

Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald holds a photo of kidnapping suspect Jake Patterson during a news conference in the town of Barron.

Photo: Tim Gruber / New York Times

Photo: Tim Gruber / New York Times

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Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald holds a photo of kidnapping suspect Jake Patterson during a news conference in the town of Barron.

Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald holds a photo of kidnapping suspect Jake Patterson during a news conference in the town of Barron.

Photo: Tim Gruber / New York Times

Parents killed in Wisconsin in plot to kidnap their daughter, sheriff says

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BARRON, Wis. — A 21-year-old unemployed man shot a Wisconsin couple to death in a scheme to kidnap their 13-year-old daughter, holding the girl captive for three months in an isolated north woods community before she managed to escape, authorities said Friday.

Jayme Closs was skinny, disheveled and wearing shoes too big for her when she approached a stranger to tell her story Thursday in the small town of Gordon, where police said Jake Thomas Patterson lived.

Her discovery brought joy and relief 60 miles away in her hometown of Barron, population 3,300, ending an all-out search that gripped the state, with many people fearing the worst the longer she was missing.

“My legs started to shake. It was awesome. The stress, the relief — it was awesome,” Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said at a news conference, describing the moment when he learned that Jayme had been found.

Patterson was jailed on kidnapping and homicide charges. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.

Fitzgerald gave no details on what happened to Jayme during her captivity and why she was seized, but said investigators do not believe Patterson knew her.

The sheriff said he did not know if Jayme had been physically abused but that she was hospitalized overnight for observation and cleared and released after a checkup. Investigators were still interviewing her Friday.

Jayme told one of the neighbors in Gordon who helped take her in after her escape that she had walked away from a cabin where she had been held.

“She said that this person’s name was Jake Patterson, ‘he killed my parents and took me,’” another one of the neighbors, Kristin Kasinskas, told the Associated Press. “She did not talk about why or how. She said she did not know him.”

Property records show the cabin was sold by Patterson’s father to a credit union in October, a few days before Jayme’s disappearance.

Kasinskas called 911 to report the girl had been found after another neighbor out walking her dog encountered Jayme and brought her to Kasinskas’ house. Minutes later, Patterson was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy based on a description of his vehicle Jayme provided, authorities said.

Jayme disappeared from her family’s home near Barron after someone broke in and killed her parents, James and Denise Closs, on Oct. 15.

Fitzgerald said Jayme was taken against her will. He said investigators believe Patterson killed Jayme’s parents because he wanted to abduct her.

Kasinskas said she taught Patterson science in middle school.

“He seemed like a quiet kid,” she said. “I don’t recall anything that would have explained this, by any means.”